For you, Andrea!

Asian Turkey Meatballs with Lime Sesame Dipping Sauce
Recipe from www.skinnytaste.com
¼ cup panko crumbs
1 ¼ pounds 93% lean ground turkey
1 egg
1 tablespoon ginger, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 scallions, chopped
1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil

Dipping Sauce
4 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons water
1 chopped fresh scallion (green onion)

Preheat oven to 500°F.  Mix ground turkey, panko, egg, salt, scallions, ginger, cilantro, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, and 2 teaspoon oil and mix with your hands until combined well. Shape ¼ cup meat mixture into a ball and transfer to a baking dish. Repeat with remaining mixture. Bake until cooked through, about 15 minutes.

For the dipping sauce, mix together lime juice, water, soy sauce, and remaining 2 teaspoons of oil in a bowl. Add scallions.  Transfer meatballs to a serving dish. Stir sauce, then drizzle meatballs with 1 tablespoon sauce.  Serve meatballs with remaining sauce, about 1 tablespoon per person.  Makes 12 meatballs. (One serving equals three large meatballs. The photo above is of two small appetizer-sized meatballs.)

The 6th Annual Brunswick Framily Easter Celebration - 2011

(Friends who are like family = framily)

During Lent I made a very conscious effort to not be consumed by technology during “family” time, which includes the after-dinner hours, the time when I would usually blog. It was great and I really enjoyed it, but blogging took a backseat.

But I’m back now, and with pictures!

This past Sunday we celebrated Easter, one of my favorite holidays of the entire year. I love everything about Easter. I love that it’s spring and (hopefully) warm and sunny and pretty.  I love that our family gets together to celebrate the day with some of our closest friends (these days, the children outnumber the adults!).  My favorite part of the day, though, is the celebration of our risen Lord and Savior.  He is alive – hallelujah and amen!

This year we celebrated our first Easter with Nora, which made it that much sweeter.

Nora was not interested in smiling, the little rascal

Apparently a plastic egg an an appearance by the Easter Bunny was all it took to make her smile

Somewhere floating around is a photo of a huge crowd of us – 26 or so adults and even more children (I think).  The kids outnumber the adults now, I think, and there are more on the way!  This is a tradition that goes back years, and there were only two kiddos back then (and they were little bitty).  My, how times have changed!  It was so neat to look at the photos from the past few years and see how we have all changed and how our brood has grown. We also laughed a little at the changes in our hair lengths and our sizes (there have obviously been lots of pregnancies between us).  Last year I was hugely pregnant and I am – very thankfully – not this year!

One thing that has not changed over the years is the awesome group of friends we have here. They are family to us, and we all just love our special Easter tradition.  And the food is just as good as the fellowship! We all bring at least one side dish; this year I made Chop-Chop Salad and apricot angel food cake.  It was a wonderful day full of family, food, fun and fellowship. Thank you, Herndons!

And, for the first time in a long time, working out wasn’t about losing weight – it was about being healthy.  I think not feeling like I really need to lose weight has helped me stick with this.  Weird, I know, but just doing something to be healthy is a bigger motivator for me right now. I’ve been jogging (I run too slowly to really call it a run) for about 9 weeks now and I feel great.  Not just about how I look or what the scale says (because, really, I could always be skinnier and I wouldn’t complain one bit if the numbers on the scale went down), but about what I’ve accomplished and what my body is able to do.  I know that for some of you this is no big deal, but it is for me!

I’ve run off and on since high school (more off than on), but I’ve never been what you would call a “runner” – not even when I ran track.  It’s just never been something that comes easily to me; I can’t just take a year off and then decide to go run a mile one day (or five minutes, really!).   I have to train for weeks to really be able to run.

I found a great running workout in Runner’s World a few years ago and it has served me very well on numerous occasions. Every time I take a long break from running I go back to this workout and it never fails me. When Patrick and I started dating I was running 5-6 miles 3-4 times a week. I loved it, but lemme tell ya — it took me a LONG time to get there. It takes me forever to work up to running any kind of distance (okay, even a mile), so this workout is clutch for me.

So in case you’re interested, here’s my tried-and-true training schedule.  It works – really works.  I’m on week 9 right now and I love it — I actually look forward to running (er, jogging.  But I do not look forward to waking up at 6 a.m. three times a week – ugh.)  After I finish week 10 I’ll just continue to bump up my time on a weekly basis.  I’ll also start working on increasing my speed.  It’s been a goal of mine since college to run a 5K race and I have yet to do so (and I’ve been out of college for … a while).  So I’m bound and determined to run a 5K this summer or fall.  Someone hold me accountable, please!

10-WEEK TRAINING SCHEDULE
From Runner’s World
Run Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Take Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday off.  Each workout is 30 minutes.  (I know I posted this about three years ago, but I’m doing it again so I thought it wouldn’t hurt to re-post.)

Week 1
Run 2 minutes,
walk 4 minutes.
Repeat 5 times.

Week 2
Run 3 minutes,
walk 3 minutes.
Repeat five times.

Week 3
Run 5 minutes,
walk 2.5 minutes.
Repeat four times.

Week 4
Run 7 minutes,
walk 3 minutes.
Repeat three times.

Week 5
Run 8 minutes,
walk 2 minutes.
Repeat three times.

Week 6
Run 9 minutes,
walk 2 minutes.
Repeat twice, then
run 8 minutes.

Week 7
Run 9 minutes,
walk 1 minute.
Repeat three times

Week 8
Run 13 minutes,
walk 2 minutes.
Repeat twice.

Week 9
Run 14 minutes,
walk 1 minute.
Repeat twice.

Week 10
Run 30 minutes.

I’m also one of those people who needs some good music to keep me going.  When I started a few weeks ago I was listening to a playlist that I had been listening to for a good three years or so.  The songs were great (and still are), but I needed something new.  Thanks to runner extraordinaire Courtney, I have a rockin’ playlist that really gets me moving.

Please don’t judge … I’m not listening to these songs for their message (or lack thereof – ha!), but for their good, fast beats!
Marvelous Light – Charlie Hall
I Gotta Feeling – Black Eyed Peas
Girlfriend – Avril Lavigne
Forget You – Cee Lo Green
Glamorous – Fergie
In My Head – Jason Derulo
Baby – Justin Bieber
California Gurls – Katy Perry
Hot N Cold – Katy Perry
Tik Tok – Ke$ha
We R Who We R – Ke$ha
Since U Been Gone – Kelly Clarkson
Just Dance – Lady Gaga
SOS – Rihanna
Don’t Stop the Music – Rihanna
Shut Up and Drive – Rihanna
Push it – Salt-N-Pepa
Hips Don’t Lie – Shakira
Dynamite – Taio Cruz

I’m always looking for more songs to add, so if you have some suggestions lemme know!  I think I’m going to add Katy Perry’s “Firework” soon.

Slightly more negative, but it sums it up pretty well.

I want to be superwoman. I want to be able to do it all – be a wife, mom, daughter, sister, friend, employee, etc.  I want to be good at all of the roles I play.  I have tried to be superwoman and do it all.  I really have.  But it didn’t work so well.  I’m a perfectionist and want to be good – no, great – at everything I do.  If I take something on I want to do it really, really well.  I don’t want to be mediocre or just okay … and failing is not an option.

But a few months ago I was just okay.  Actually, less than okay in some areas of my life.  In my quest to be superwoman – to do everything – I ended up doing nothing well.  And that bothered me.  Really bothered me.

I wasn’t being a good wife.  I don’t feel like I was being a good mom (Nora can’t complain much yet, but still …), I wasn’t being the greatest friend and I was not living up to some of the commitments I had made.

I was stretched too thin.

And I came to a startling – and humbling – realization: I’m not superwoman.  I can’t do it all.

So after some thought and much prayer, I said no to some things.  Some things I really wanted to do, some really good things that I was excited to be a part of.

But sometimes, we have to give up the good to be the best.

And that’s just what I’ve done.  This year is the year of no.  The year of saying no to things so that I can say yes to the most important things – God, Patrick, Nora, my family, my friends and my job.

The things that mean the most are going to get the most of my attention, as they should.  That may mean that the house doesn’t get cleaned as often as I’d like (but I must say that Patrick has taken on my least favorite chores – whatta man!), I’m not blogging as much as I want to, I’m not helping out at church as often as I could, and I’m saying no more than before, but my focus is where it needs to be.

So maybe instead of calling 2011 “The Year of No,” I should call it “The Year of Yes.”

Yes to what matters most.

Matt. 5:37: All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No;’ anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Patrick – you are my best friend and the love of my life.  I am so thankful that I get to walk through this life with you.  You have brought such love, fun, joy, happiness, laughter (lots of that) and so much more to my life.  Every day – whether we’re cleaning the house, grocery shopping, enjoying some “just us” time on a date or just hanging out at home – is better with you.  I love you, Valentine!

The two loves of my life.  (I couldn’t find a recent one of just the two of us, so this will have to do).

Patrick – that doesn’t get you off the hook though … I still want a sweet card!

But, now that we have Nora, I’ll be making a little bit bigger deal of Valentine’s Day.  While it’s my JOB as a mom to let her know how loved she is, it’ll be nice to have this one day to go the extra mile to lavish love upon her and celebrate our love for her.

This year she’s too young for chocolate, but we’ll spoil her with some yogurt (one of her fave foods) and an extra kiss or two (or two hundred).

Whatever your relationship status, know this on the Day o’ Love: you are greatly loved by God.  He lavishes love upon us, His children.  And He pours His unending love out upon us each and every day, not just on February 14.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! 1 John 3:1

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Nora on Christmas morning

Oooh, a bow!!  I wonder how it will taste …

Patrick and I each had a surprise for each other, and after opening presents we got ready and got on the road to Richmond Hill to see my parents, his parents, Allison and Scott (Patrick’s sister and brother-in-law).  Since we spent Thanksgiving in Illinois with my family, we spent Christmas at Patrick’s parents’ house, but they were so sweet to invite my parents over for lunch (they live in the same neighborhood – such a blessing!).  We enjoyed a wonderful lunch, and I ate the best soup I have ever tasted.  Scott made a French onion soup that was to die for.  I had never eaten French onion soup before and oh my word, it was delicious.  I will be making it soon.  Very soon.

Speaking of Scott, here he is with Nora.  What cute elves they are!  This is one of my favorite pictures.

After lunch we opened presents and relaxed and enjoyed each others company.  Later in the afternoon we went to my parents’ house and opened gifts there.  Our families are so incredibly generous and we were given a lot of wonderful gifts.

At my parents’ house in front of their beautiful tree

Nora and Grandma

Nora and Granddad, reading the super-cute book Allison and Scott gave her

Nora with her Cardinals Tervis Tumbler sippy cup

Tervis Tumblers were a popular gift this Christmas.  I think 14 were given and/or received this year.  Perhaps we should buy stock …

We had a wonderful Christmas and spent such great time with our families.  There was even snow the day after Christmas – some very light flurries – but nothing stuck (thank goodness!).  It was so sweet to have Nora this Christmas, and we look forward to lots of fun Christmases to come.

January 6, 2010
21 weeks pregnant

January 6, 2011
Nora is 7 months, 3 weeks old